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September Bibliolust

I actually made pretty good progress on my lust lists the last month. Of the 13 books the last two months, I’ve read eight, am on the library reserve list for two, have one on the TBR shelves at home and gave up on one. Hopefully, I can do as well with this month’s additions:

The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee, Sarah Silverman — I’m not generally a fan of celebrity bios or memoirs but when I saw the local library had Sarah Silverman’s book, I figured I’d join the reserve list. Her humor intrigues me enough that I figured it might be worth taking a chance.

Comedy in a Minor Key and The Death of the Adversary, Hans Keilson — As I’m already reading the latter, it may not be fair to add these to this list. The fact, though, is I didn’t learn about them until early August so they didn’t make last month’s list. Keilson, a German author, wrote both books in the 1940s and the novels explore the rise of rise of Nazism and resistance to it.

Freedom, Jonathan Franzen — I figure this almost has to be on the list given some have already called it the best novel of the century. I often find, though, that rave reviews either create too much expectation in my mind or lead me to wonder what in the world the reviewers were thinking.

Kings of the Earth, Jon Clinch — Favorable reviews, including one I heard this past weekend, pushed this onto my hold list at the library. The novel was inspired by the 1992 documentary Brother’s Keeper, which I enjoyed, so I thought it worth a try. The novel and the doc are based on the death of one of a set of basically illiterate brothers living on a farm.

Report Card:

Year-to-date (January-August)

Total Bibliolust books: 44

Number read: 26 (59%)

Started but did not finish: 4 (9%)

Cumulative (September 2008-August 2010)

Total Bibliolust books: 130

Number read: 86 (66%)

Started but did not finish: 8 (6%)

If I had found the words I was looking for, I would not have read so much.